Research interests

My primary research interests are in the area of theoretical and computational modeling of materials. Recently I have begun to focus on properties of perovskite and related materials. Much of my past work had focused on the properties of native defects in gallium arsenide. Of particular interest are the interactions between native defects and foreign species that affect the diffusion of these atoms.

In this investigation, I have been applying density functional theory to produce the necessary defect energy results. These energies are used to predict equilibrium concentrations of defects involving an excess or lack of atoms of a specific type. Additionally, these methods are applied to the search for microscopic pathways for the motion of atoms through a sample. To compare to experimental results, numerous defects and microscopic diffusion pathways are evaluated under a wide range of conditions of temperature, chemical potential, and doping. Reasonably good agreement is obtained where there is corresponding experimental data. And these calculations make predictions in areas not yet investigated experimentally.

Selected publications

Davis Garwood, Chole Widman, Wolfgang Losert, Corey Hart, and Joseph T. Schick, “Optical scattering enables simulation trained classification of images.” Submitted.

Joseph T. Schick and Andrew M. Rappe, “Classical model of negative thermal expansion in solids with expanding bonds.” Physical Review B, 93, 214304 (2016) (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.93.214304).

Joseph T. Schick, Lai Jiang, Diomedes Saldana-Greco, Andrew M. Rappe, “Coupling between octahedral rotations and local polar displacements in WO3/ReO3 superlattices.” Physical Review B, 89, 195304 (2014) (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.89.195304).

Lai Jiang, Diomedes Saldana-Greco, Joseph T. Schick, Andrew M. Rappe “Enhanced charge ordering transition in doped CaFeO3 through steric templating.” Physical Review B, 89, 235106 (2014) (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.89.235106).

J. T. Schick and C. G. Morgan, “Gallium interstitial contributions to diffusion in gallium arsenide,” AIP Advances, 1, 032161 (2011) (DOI: 10.1063/1.3644937).

S. N. Behera, S. M. Bose, P. Entel, and J. T. Schick, “Thermoelectric Figure of Merit of a Material with Caged Structure and Rattler Atoms,” Phase Transitions 77, 225 (2004) (DOI: 10.1080/01411590310001623238).

J. T. Schick, C. G. Morgan, P. Papoulias, “First-principles study of As interstitials in GaAs: Convergence, relaxation, and formation energy,” Physical Review B, 66, 195302 (2002) (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.66.195302).
(arXiv:1101.1413)

J. I. Landman, C. G. Morgan, J. T. Schick, P. Papoulias, and A. Kumar, “Arsenic interstitials and interstitial complexes in low-temperature grown GaAs,” Physical Review B, 55, 15581 (1997) (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.55.15581).

J. T. Schick and S. M. Bose, “Electronic Structure of a Buried NiSi2 or CoSi2 Layer in Bulk Si,” Physical Review B 53, 12609 (1996) (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.53.12609).

J. I. Landman, C. G. Morgan, and J. T. Schick, “Antisite-related defects in GaAs grown at low temperatures,” Physical Review Letters, 74, 4007 (1995) (DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.74.4007).